Mind the gap! Students’ use of exemplars and detailed rubrics as formative assessment

The current study examined efficient modes for providing standardized feedback to improve performance on an assignment for a second year college class involving writing a brief research proposal. Two forms of standardized feedback (detailed rubric and proposal exemplars) were utilized is an experimental design with undergraduate students (N = 100) at three urban college campuses. Students completed a draft of a proposal as part of their course requirements and were then randomly assigned to receive a detailed rubric, proposal exemplars, or a rubric and proposal exemplars for use in revising their work. Analyses of students’ writing from first draft to second draft indicated that all three conditions led to improvements in writing that were significant and strong in terms of effect size, with the stand-alone detailed rubric leading to the greatest improvement. Follow-up focus groups with students indicated that a stand-alone rubric potentially engages greater mindfulness on the part of the student. Practical implications are discussed.     

Aging in community: home- and community-based services clients’ use of computers as a protective factor for social isolation and loneliness

ABSTRACT

Frail older adults are increasingly being cared for in the community via home- and community-based service (HCBS) programs rather than nursing homes. This policy change challenges psychologists, social workers, and all geriatric practitioners to identify risk and protective factors in order to implement community-based policies in ways which promote the well-being of frail older adults.

The present small-scale exploratory study focused on the risk factors of social isolation and loneliness, and the potential of computer use to act as a protective factor. Forty HCBS clients were interviewed about their social convoys, social isolation, and loneliness, and their use of computers. Family members made up the largest percentage of participants’ social convoys (48%). Forty-two percent of participants were found to be socially isolated or at high risk for social isolation. Twenty-five percent of participants used computers and these participants experienced significantly less loneliness and had significantly larger social convoys. All participants were shown a 2.5 -minute video demonstrating a computer programmed to accommodate older adults and 80% expressed interest in using such a program.

Future action research projects are suggested to replicate the study’s findings. Such projects could involve collaboration between gerontologists and local area agencies on aging and “service-enriched” affordable senior housing sites.     

Meeting the E-Resources Challenge through Collaboration: An OCLC Perspective on Effective Management,Access, and Delivery of Electronic Collections

The session explored how collaboration among libraries, suppliers, and the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) cooperative can address some of the problems being faced with the management of electronic resources. Examples of specific challenges that impact budgets and services are: libraries’ reliance on multiple non-interoperable systems; the difficulties in getting and maintaining high quality and timely metadata; and the issues with managing workflows that cross system and staff boundaries. As work continues to introduce and enhance integrated systems for electronic resource management, these cooperative efforts can improve both the quality of the services and the associated data and workflows.     

Associations between language and literacy skills and sight word learning for native and nonnative English-speaking kindergarteners

Reading and Writing - This study, which was drawn from a larger published work, examined language proficiency and literacy skills predictive of learning content and function words via the commonly...     

Education for Integrated Rural Development: transformative learning in a complex and uncertain world

A key question addressed in this article is: How does the increased pressure for expertise in IRD translate itself into the demand for educational services and the design of appropriate curricula on a European-wide basis? This article examines these issues and generates a number of stepping stones for the development of Education and Training for Integrated Rural Development (ETIRD) in tertiary education, based on a two-year inter-institutional curriculum development project carried out under the umbrella of the AFANetⁱ.     

21st Century Library Systems

ABSTRACT

Less than a decade into the 21st century, perhaps it is more fitting to describe library automation as approaching its 80th birthday, is a time to look back and carefully measure moving forward. Since the introduction of a punch card circulation system at the University of Texas in 1936, through the advent and perseverance of the MARC record, and following the ebb and flow of nearly 75 different library automation vendors, library automation has come a long way. For some, however, it has not come nearly far enough. If one were to stop the history of library automation in the mid-1990s and wish away the dominance of the Internet, libraries and patrons might have been quite content with the state-of–the-art as it existed 15 years ago. But wishing away the Internet is like envisioning a world without electricity and indoor plumbing; as such, that 1990s library automation summit is now a plateau from which many library technologists and futurists can see no launch pad to a next-generation of library software and services.     

Anxiety and self-esteem as mediators of the relation between family communication and indecisiveness in adolescence

In this study, we explored the unique and common contributions of anxiety, self-esteem, and family communication on indecisiveness among adolescents. Three hundred and fifty pupils from 13 to 16 years of age completed self-report measures on indecisiveness, quality of family communication, trait anxiety, and self-esteem. The findings in this study showed that students’ indecisiveness is predicted by family communication mediated by anxiety and self-esteem. These results have important implications for practice as it stresses the importance of anxiety and self-esteem. Nevertheless, the counselors could also focus on enhancing relationship-building skills by introducing the adolescents’ career formation as an adolescent–parent joint project.     

‘Our surgeons want this to be short and simple’: practices of in-hospital medication review as coordinated sociomaterial actions

ABSTRACT

Medication review, a systematic assessment of a patient’s medicines by a health care professional, is intended to prevent medication-related harms. A critical element of medication review concerns whether medication review is conducted in a coordinated way. This article draws from a case example of implementing medication review in two surgical wards of a Swedish regional hospital and aims to analyse how medication review is being accomplished with respect to the coordination of its actions. Using a practice-based ethnographic approach, we present several coordination mechanisms by illustrating how practices are connected to materials involved in medication review. Also, we show how common orientations, ends, and understandings expressed in different medication review practices contribute to the coordination of the practices. In conclusion, this article highlights the complexity of establishing and sustaining medication review as a coordinated practice in routine health care. By closely examining sociomaterial connections, this article sheds new light on the neglected issue of artefacts and arrangements in constituting and transforming a highly complex medication practice.     

Variables related to the effectiveness of response cost

Students in four second-grade classes exhibiting disruptive behavior were exposed to response cost programs with varying initial reinforcement and fine levels. Results indicated that all treatments were highly effective, as all groups underwent maximum behavioral change, with the target behaviors approaching a near-zero level. Thus, the degree of aversiveness of the procedure did not appear to be strongly related to effectiveness. Results are explained in terms of the discriminative properties of response cost.